AMARC is concerned over the Korean Film Council's decision to dismantle the Mediact media center and force its staff to resign as of 1 February 2010.
(AMARC/IFEX) – AMARC calls attention to threats raised against Mediact – a media center based in South Korea. Mediact has been a crucial hub for media democracy, not only in South Korea but also in East Asia and the Asia Pacific region.
AMARC requests your signature on this petition:
We now join those concerned over the regression of democracy in South Korea that has now taken the form of an attack on Mediact, South Korea’s first public media center that has since its founding represented South Korea internationally as a leader in communication rights and democracy, media literacy, intellectual property rights, and public interest media.
Since 2002, Mediact has stewarded a contract to support independent film and video makers, media policy development, lifelong media education and public access. For seven years, it has provided an infrastructure focusing on the potential of creating a public media sector based on both shifting technological possibilities of access to the media and ongoing political democratization processes taking place in South Korea.
Mediact’s facilities are funded by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), which is supposed to be an autonomous organization funded by the central government to promote Korean cinema within the country and overseas, and an independent activist organization managed by the Association of Korean Independent Film & Video (KIFV). We are highly alarmed by the new KOFIC Chairman’s recent decision to dismantle Mediact and force its staff to resign as of February 1.
As Mediact’s counterparts in the international community, we have been long inspired by Mediact’s visionary leadership in the areas of media policy, media education, media production and communication rights. We, the undersigned, urge the government of President Lee Myung-bak to recognize its responsibility for the democracy that has regressed and reorient itself as a government that respects the people’s sovereignty and South Korea’s continued leadership in media and communication rights. We ask KOFIC together with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to reverse this decision immediately.
